Elite

Cox’s morning on Chickamauga close up

After getting a good glimpse from the air, get a closer look at Cox's morning Day 1 of the 2022 Guaranteed Rate Bassmaster Elite at Chickamauga Lake!

Posted on
Photography by
Andy Crawford
Florida’s John Cox started the first day of the Guaranteed Rate Bassmaster Elite at Chickamauga Lake leading the Progressive Angler of the Year race. Follow along to see how his morning progressed.
This is when his aluminum boat really came in handy, since the water over the sandbar was so shallow he had to lift his trolling motor to pull the boat across.
Cox was hoping to be able to see fish on beds in the shallow pocket, but he said the water had edged up a few inches and muddied up.
Cox said there was a little ditch through the shallow flat, so he poled down to he didn’t muddy up the water and fan cast the area.
He said he could see fish waking. “It’s almost like they’re guarding fry,” he said. So he began by throwing a wacky rig and dragging it through the grass.
It didn’t take long for Cox to dig into his rod box to pull out a new lure.
Cox moved to a vibrating jig to see if he could get a reaction bite.
Back to the rod box for another option.
And then back again. Cox laughed about having to pull out so many rods.
You could see Cox trying to figure out how to attack the problem of getting the bass to bite.
Finally, Cox threw in the towl and said he was running all the way to the dam.
We caught up with Cox again down the lake. Again, it was no surprise that he was tucked off the main lake in a very shallow pocket looking for spawning beds.
When he saw what might be a bed, he would pole down and take a closer look.
Cox finally set up on a bed and spent at least 30 minutes pitching a bait to it.
Finally, the bass was aggrevated enough to snag the lure, and Cox set the hook.
It wasn’t a monster bass; Cox logged it into BASSTrakk as a 2-pounder. But it broke the ice on his day.
Local anglers watched Cox, studying his every move.
After working his way through the pocket without locating any more bedded bass, Cox pulled up his trolling motor and headed out to continue his search.

Related